Coral Pink was once again an awe-some trip. Check out the photos, video, and stories from 10 days of duning heaven.

Since it is too hot to dune, and Coral Pink is over, it must be time for the summer Lake Havasu trip. This year’s trip is just around the corner, the weekend of August 13-15th at Don and Shirley Ford’s home.

The Grossmans took a trip up to Pismo with their new motorhome and the sandrail. Read all about their adventure on Page 5.

We don’t have final plans yet for a club picnic. If you have any ideas, comments, or suggestions come on out to the August meeting or let a board member know.

The 16th annual Coral Pink trip was again a success. We spent 10 days at the dunes, and a night each on the way up and back in Mesquite Nevada. We reported the basics of each day’s events in the article that follows, but there is oh so much more to talk about, and like with past trips we’ll be telling the stories for years…

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August 11th: Club meeting at the

Denny’s in Redlands, 7PM.

August 13th-15th: Club river trip to the

Ford’s in Lake Havasu City AZ.

September 8th: Club meeting at the

Denny’s in Redlands, 7PM.

September 17th-19th: Sand Sports Super Show

at the Orange County Fair-

grounds in Costa Mesa.

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Wednesday: Melissa and I got up at 3:30AM to head for Barstow to meet up with John, Anna and Brianna in Barstow. We met them at the gas station, then headed for Mesquite. Along the way the only failure was John’s generator, which had the starter switch stick and burned up the starter. We arrived in Mesquite about lunch time, and saw that everyone except Kris and Doug had arrived. About 6:00 Kris and Doug showed up having suffered a flat tire, but still in time for dinner. We headed to Pizza Hut, where Jim treated us thanks to his two royal flushes in the pre-vious week. After dinner, Jim went out to play and got his third Royal Flush and won another $1000. Sometimes it pays to be lucky. Thursday: We had breakfast at the Eureka buffet (Thanks Kris) and then packed up and left for Coral Pink about 10:30. I had a flat tire just before the Virgin River Gorge, but with the IEOA pit crew it was fixed very quickly. Some of us fueled up in St George, and we met up with the rest just above Hurricane in Apple Valley Utah. There we changed a tire on Kris and Doug’s trailer and then the rest of the trip to Coral Pink was uneventful. We set up camp, including fitting John’s big fifth wheel into a relatively small site by the restrooms, but we finished in time to go for a first ride and met up with Steve Sturm, who had arrived shortly after us on his way back from Idaho. Friday: We went for a morning ride and made it to the corral. I had a weird problem with my car that was leading to overheating and running rough. We made it down the

Disneyland trail with the exception of Gene, who apparently went off the trail far on the left and got stuck in a ravine. My car stopped running at the bot-tom, so Don, John, and I waited while the others went to help Gene. Through some careful ex-cavation and planning and some lifting, he was able to make it out. Thinking that cooling down would have helped my car, we tried to go back to camp. It still

didn’t run, and now the battery was dead. The light bulb went on in Jim’s head, and we figured out it was the alternator that wasn’t charging. We tried to tow it back, but swapped batteries with Jim and drove it back to camp instead. Finally we made it back to camp and headed into Kanab for lunch-dinner. Lotsa Motsa was closed, so we went to Nedra’s, which was great. Then we came back to camp and worked on my alternator, and found that a wire in the harness had broken, and the alternator itself (and our two spares) were just fine. John and Anna brought cheese-cake for an early birthday celebration for Melissa, and gave her a neat single cup coffee maker that she could enjoy the rest of the week. Saturday: We went for a morning ride and my car worked well the whole time. We got a neat picture of John jumping over Bob-Jim, which was accidental but made a nice shot. It also made for nice Photoshop material once it was edited to send to Scott back at

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home during the week with the car in higher and higher positions. Then we went back to Kanab to visit the hardware store’s annual anniversary sale. Everything you could fit in a 5 gallon bucket was 20% off, and the bucket was free. We took advantage of the sale and got some odds and ends. Then when we got back to camp we went for an evening ride on the dunes. Sunday: We played around camp most of the morning, since we had managed to blow the main power breaker that the head Ranger needed to reset. Kris, Doug, and Shirley went for a Ranger ride to the cliffs overlooking Zion, and we worked on stuff around camp. I removed John’s broken generator starter, and Jim and Walt greased Jim’s CVs. Then we (Jim, me, John, and Walt) went for an afternoon ride to the corral and through the upper dunes. It went well until Walt launched off a small drop and landed hard, biting his lip and causing his goggles to fly 15 feet from the car. It hurt him a bit, but he walked it off and got back on the 400 horses. Monday: We got up and went for an early ride leaving camp by 9:30. Then Don, Jim, John, and I rode all through the upper dunes, and took a

break at Moon Rock. We headed back to camp in order to make it to Lotsa Motsa for the lunch buffet. We found out that the nice owner guy had suffered a heart attack on Thursday, but being a small business owner he was back at work on Monday. We all enjoyed the buffet and wished him well. We also went online and called around to find a starter for John’s generator, and after a guy in St. George said they weren’t available, we found it from Amazon.com for $45. We ordered it with next day shipping and had it shipped to the pizza place, so we could go back in for lunch the next two days. Once we got back to camp so did the clouds, and it sprinkled a bit and was nice and cool. Then John, Jim, and I went for an evening sunset ride.

Tuesday: Today was Melissa’s birthday, so we got up and gave her presents during breakfast. Then after a little minor car work I went for a 9:45 AM ride with Jim, John, and Don while Walt went with Doug, Kris, and Shirley on the Rangers. We had a little trouble where a dune had blown across a trail that pushed it against a barbed wire fence, but we all made it out. Then we came back to camp and went to Kanab again for lunch and to buy birthday cake. It rained while we were in town, and every-one in camp helped cover up the cars. Then when we got back from town we just sat around and enjoyed the cool temperatures before we had dinner and then cake and ice cream. Then we ended the evening with looking at old and new Coral Pink pictures on the computer. Wednesday: Melissa and I went to St. George and Cedar city today. We got a new trailer tire and did lots of other shopping, including visiting four pawn shops. The Rangers went for a morning ride and John, Jim, and Don went for a buggy ride. Then Kris and Doug headed to Kanab for trailer tires and Jim, Don, Walt, and Shirley went to Lotsa Motsa for lunch and picked up the generator starter that arrived via next day UPS from Tennessee. Then John installed the starter and cleaned up the carb on the generator, so that with his newly up-graded 50 Amp service he can run both air conditioners on the generator. Walt picked up his paint that he ordered earlier in the

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week. It was neat that his paint and Kris and Doug’s tires were ordered without deposits and arrived on time as promised. You gotta love Utah. Thursday: This morning we went to the Thunderbird restaurant for our annual breakfast. The service was the best ever, and it was neat to do something together with everybody. After breakfast the Coles (including Melissa) took the Excursion into Zion while the rest of us Headed back to camp. On the way, we saw that a four door sedan was stuck on the access route to the dunes from the meadow. We turned in to see what was happening, and noticed that the car was still in reverse with a front wheel spinning and the keys locked inside! Apparently in the frustration of trying to get unstuck she had locked the keys inside and left the car in gear. She asked for whatever help we could provide, so we went to camp for tools and came back with some wood wedges and a piece of wire. We were able to pry the top corner of the door back and used the wire to wrap around the door lock pull and get it unlocked. Then, just as we were hooking up the tow strap a tow truck driver arrived from Kanab. They had arrived in under 20 minutes since they came out as soon as the Rangers called. The lady offered to pay for the tow driver’s time, and the driver was impressed at how we got the door unlocked. We went ahead and pulled her out which saved her a $120 tow. Then once we got back to camp we went for a ride. Kris rode with Jim and Shirley went with Don, and we had a nice ride to the Corral, Moon Rock, and down the Disneyland trail. Then in the afternoon after John got back from Zion Jim, John, Melissa and I went for a ride while Anna and Brianna watched Allison. It was Melissa’s first ride in quite a while, and she got to see all of Coral Pink. Then we hung out in camp the rest of the evening and cooked dinner and sat around and talked about the trip next year. Friday: We got up and went for a morning ride after a little fan modification on John’s car. Jim, Walt, Don, John, and I all went for the ride, and we ended up in the upper dunes when Walt’s slave cylinder broke. No problem, we just decided to dune back in third gear, so

we just kept the speed up, especially on the lower section. It was a good fast ride that we all enjoyed. Then Melissa and I went to town for some shopping and our annual visit to the thrift stores and quilt shop. I got a new scanner radio, and she got a new quilt. Just before we got back to camp, my Dad and Walt got back from town and at the Ranger station the Ranger said he was just in our camp. Thinking we had done something wrong, they asked what happened, and he said that he needed help with the Ranger Jeep. It seems it was stuck just outside the day use area with electrical issues. In true Inland Empire fashion John, Jim, Don, Walt, Kris, and Doug went to help. They hooked up Don’s car and winch and got the jeep moved, and then found that a 30 amp fuse had blown. Jim gave them a new fuse and some spares, and Walt figured out that some abandoned gage wiring under the Jeep was likely the culprit. After getting stuck trying to plan a route back they ended up getting everything out successfully. The Rangers were really appreciative of the help, and it was great that they knew they could come to us for help. Later John, Jim, and I went for one last ride. We covered

all of the dunes, and did some fast sliding in the lower section. John even got stuck mid-slide, but just stayed in the gas since he knew we’d have to lift the car with a jack anyway. Brianna gave him some funny looks, but we got it out. Then we went back to

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August 22th we left to our motor home destination: Pacific Dunes Ranch Resort RV resort in Oceano. www.pacificdunesranch.info (This was only my second time riding in the motor home) On our way up the 101, I realized I had bought book two and three of a trilogy series and we didn’t have any beach towels (like I was going in the ocean???) So when I saw a Sam’s Club along the freeway, I somehow convinced Chuck to get off at the next exit and go back. Maybe it was the “I saw a Best Buy on the other cor-ner” that persuaded him. He’s a sucker for Best Buys and has a DVD collection in alphabetic order (784 and growing). So, we get the beach towels and they had book one of the trilogies (unbelievable) – we were almost on the way to the check stand when we saw these really neat plants. One with a three braided trunk in a one gallon con-tainer and another that looked like a miniature elephant plant in a fifteen gallon container. Well…. We just had to have them …..because you never know if the Sam’s club near our house would have them and I’m sure I could not get Chuck to drive up the 101 to Ventura’s Sam Club for the plants later. We were wall to wall plant the rest of the trip. We’re back on the road with: four DVD’s, three new beach towels, two really big plants, and the first of the trilogy book series. ( doesn’t this kind of remind you of the last 4 days of the Christmas song “12 days of

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camp and began packing up for tomorrow’s trip home. Saturday: We got up and continued the long process of getting everything packed up. John had no trouble getting his rig out of his site, and we had everybody packed up and out of the sites by about 10:30 AM. After a stop at the dump station we went by the Ranger station to give them a DVD of pictures we had taken. The actual Ranger on duty came out to shake our hands and tank us for the help with the Jeep. What a neat situation. We told them we had our week picked out for next year and can’t wait to come back. The we headed down the dirt road for a relatively uneventful trip to Mesquite. We stopped before Hurricane to make sure John’s trailer brakes were working, but it turned out the stuff in the truck bed was bumping against the plug and causing a short. Fortu-nately he had no trouble going down the steep Hurricane hill without trailer brakes thanks to his big truck and careful driving. Then

we all got RV spaces except for Kris and Doug, who stayed in the hotel. After some swimming we all met up for dinner at the awe-some Eureka buffet, which brought a nice end to a wonderful trip. Sunday: We got up and grabbed McDonalds breakfast before packing up and heading out. The Coles, my Dad, and us ran together to Ve-gas, where my Dad turned off for the river. Then we ran with the Coles the rest of the way to Victorville where they turned off and we were left to head for Riverside. After a little going home Ve-gas traffic we made it home just before 5:00 PM and began unloading the trailer ad sorting the pictures. For those of you who haven’t checked it out, we posted hundreds of pictures to the club site using Shutterfly, and we sorted them by day of the trip. We also posted our 100 favorite pictures to a “Best of Coral Pink” album if you don’t have the time to see all the pictures. All in all it was a great trip and we enjoyed spending 10 days with such a neat group of friends and family. -P.J. and Melissa

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Christmas”LOL) Then I asked about stopping at Solvang – Chuck said sure we can have lunch there. So off we went, had lunch and picked up some wonderful baked goods at Sorenson’s Bakery. Duke and Dixie we sitting on the dash board waiting for us to get back - I guess they felt that is was necessary for the generator to be out since they hit the switch on the way up to the dash. Luckily we didn’t leave them the key or we never would have found the motor home. We get to the camp ground (resort?) set up camp and boy, did our new plants class up our camp site. I

made dinner and we waited for Justin to arrive followed by his new unofficial (I say official) girlfriend Desiree (boy is she NICE and what a DOLL!!!!). They set up their tent and later that night, two more of Justin’s friends arrived. The next morning the kids went surfing. I didn’t go because I didn’t want them to feel bad by showing them up with my surfing ability (lol). They came back for lunch and then Chuck and the kids were off to the dunes. You have to trailer the off road toys about 20 minutes to the parking area at the dunes. About 3 ½ quiet hours later they were done dunning and back. We had cocktails (beer) and appetizers followed by

dinner. At this RV park you are required to bring your own fire pit container – so of course Justin built us a really cool fire pit drum (I’m sure that took lots of man hours at work) On Saturday it was kind of a repeat of Friday with one little exception. When they came back from the dunes – I said “So how’s MY sand rail – you didn’t hurt it did you?” Well……Justin did a little roll over and kind of destroyed the wing and mangled the rack on top. Everyone was fine and of course the car can and will be

fixed ($$Justin$$) again.

Before Justin took off (before the roll) Chuck had said to him “Be careful and take it easy – you have two peo-ple in the back seat that have never been in a sand rail before.” The newbie’s loved the ride – even with the roll (kids????) No one, meaning Chuck, was mad and the rest of day went on just fine. Almost every time I left the motor home, when I got back the generator would be out and Duke and Dixie would look at me like “see what happens when you LEAVE US”. Of course I had to try out the confectionary oven and make peach crisp (Desiree loves my peach crisp). So, I

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sent the boys to the store in town for Ice cream. They were gone about 45 minutes (you’d think they were making the ice cream). When they finally got back, they all emerged from the car with swords and proceeded to have a nerf sword fight – it was way - way too funny? Status of the ice cream– kind of melted---- status of the sword fight– a truce. They got the ice cream then went to K-Mart – really! Then had a dizzy bat contest on the front grass near the entrance and got lots of weird looks from other campers- but they had fun. If you don’t know how to play dizzy bat – I’m sure Justin will teach you. The kids all left Sunday and on the way home were stopping in Carpinteria to surf some more before heading home and we left on Monday. Half way home on the freeway all of a sudden Dixie starts barking like a mad dog!! The drawer had come out from under one of the couches and I think she thought she was under attack. I’m not sure if it scared her or maybe someone had put her in it before (I wonder who).

Pacific Dunes RV and Horseback riding resort is a full hookup RV park. The camp sites were very clean and so were the bathrooms and showers. There was a little store with video games and a horseshoe pit close by. Horseback riding was a little pricey at $50.00 for an hour and ten minute guided walk with a guide. The horses looked well kept in large pastures – we just looked, no riding! If you wanted to go to the beach from the camp grounds, it was a mile and a half walk in the sand through the dunes to get to the water (I don’t like the ocean THAT much) One of the nicest parts of the camp grounds was that it was very quiet because no off road any things were al-lowed to ride in and out on their own. You had to take your off road things by trailer to the dunes. One more thing that was great!! We had dinner delivered in on Sunday night. They have a service that for only $5.00 you can order from 20 different restaurants and they deliver to your camp site!! Way too neat! Our next trip – Lake Havasu!!! See you all there!! Janece

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Check out “Air Chuck” and his handywork. Pretty Impressive...

This month we would like to thank Janece Grossman for writing about their summer trip, and everyone who contributed to the great time we had at Coral Pink. Next month there should be more to read about as the Coles write about their first Coral Pink experience, and Allie shares her thoughts on the subject. We hope you are all enjoying your summer, and hopefully we will see lots of you in Havasu! - P.J. and Melissa Kastle

Two child’s helmets for sale: Both were purchased at Chapar-ral, 3 years ago. Both are full face with visors. Exterior is in good shape, minor scratches. Inside is in perfect shape, foam intact, no tears. Black one is a child Small and the Yellow one is a child Medium. $50 each Con-tact Pete Hagen at: (760) 451-0845

Don and Shirley have their Fiberglass Dune Buggy For Sale: 1600cc dual port engine, street legal, beautiful paint job, must see to appre-ciate. $6500 Contact Don or Shirley Ford: (928) 680-0657 Home (928) 846-2304 Cell

P.J. and Melissa have a Yamaha Golf Cart For Sale: 1996 G14 Gas golf cart. Floor sits 24 inches above the ground. Runs well. $2000 Contact P.J. Kastle: (951) 285-8459 pkastle@msn.com

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Steve Tharp 8/1 Kris Schellinger 8/2 Chuck Grossmann 8/2 Anna Cole 8/3

Jim Kastle 8/11 John Cole 8/14

Bob Keirns 8/24 Karisa Keirns 8/24 Cody Baker 8/25 Matthew Stutte 8/25 Amber Oliver 8/27

Inland Empire Offroad Association P.O. Box 132411

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

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As with any organization there are guidelines we operate within. Please read and abide by the following: 1. NO FIREWORKS ALLOWED WITHIN CAMP BOUNDRIES 2. DOGS MUST BE KEPT UNDER CONTROL AT ALL TIMES (BLM law) 3. ON A RIDE, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VEHICLE AHEAD OF YOU AND THE VEHICLE BEHIND

YOU. If they stop, you stop and wait for the group to return to you. This prevents separation and in this manner we never leave a member in the dunes. Remember, it’s easier to find you if you stay still: “a moving target is harder to hit”

4. PLEASE OBSERVE THE “RIDE RATINGS” ON THE CLUB BOARD AND SELECT THOSE RIDES YOU WISH TO PARTICIPATE IN. If you wish to lead a ride, put the time and type of ride you want to lead on the board and then stick to that time. No passing on rides (except #6 rides). You can always change your place in line at a break or if you are waved on by the driver ahead of you.

5. REMEMBER, WE ARE A GROUP OF FRIENDS who share a common interest in riding in the desert. Always keep in mind how your actions affect the other members.

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Annual dues are $35 per family. Each 12 month membership includes a monthly newsletter. Send your check or money order to:

Inland Empire Offroad Association P.O. Box 132411

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315